Mademoiselle Delait(1865-1939)
In 19th-century France, the bearded lady was not only accepted but
admired. It was even suggested that because a man with a full beard was
the superior standard of human beauty, a woman with a full beard marked
an important forward progression in the human species. The most famous
French bearded lady was Clementine Clatteaux Delait, born in 1865 in
Thaon-les-Vosges, France. As a young woman, Clementine shaved her beard
and led a normal life, but when she and her husband attended a carnival
and saw a bearded woman, she was inspired to grow a beard of her own.
People came to see her in her husband's restaurant, which he changed
from Cafe Delait to Cafe de la Femme a Barbe. When he died in 1926,
Mme. Delait toured Europe on her own. She died in 1939.
